There’s non-stop buzz about social media in all its forms: How to use it, when to maximize it, and how to grow your followers. While social media can be valuable, email is still where it’s at when it comes to online marketing power.

Almost half of Internet users in the U.S. spend an hour or more reading their email every day, according to new survey data conducted by My.com, the developers of myMail, a free mobile application that allows individuals to monitor all of their email addresses through a single inbox. We also check email multiple times throughout the day. Three-quarters of survey respondents said they check email in the morning, half check at lunch, almost six in 10 say checking email is the last thing they do before they go to bed.

So, collecting customer email addresses and crafting killer messages should be a top priority for your startup marketing campaigns.

Gmail is the most popular email service, according to My.com’s survey results, with 59 percent of Internet users reporting to having a Gmail account. Most Internet users have more than one email account, though, and Yahoo came in as the second most popular email option, according to the data. Only 12 percent of Internet users still have an AOL account.

Check out the infographic (below) for more stats on when, where and how Internet users are interacting with their inboxes.

Catherine Clifford

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbi...